I'm interrupting this dormant dog-blog to write about my entry into the world of children's literature - there will still be the occasional mention of my erstwhile doggie companion who is still a pup in spirit, if not in size.

8 Jun 2012

Pip returns to Dog School

I might have mentioned in an earlier post, Pip returned to naughty form
with renewed vigour last month and I felt the need for some outside
intervention.

My brother visited from the UK and was appalled when in the space
of a couple of hours, Pip bit him twice.

Marley misbehaving in the movie.

Trying to explain to a non-doggie
person the difference between a nip of endearment that says ‘Hey, I’m so excited
to meet you!’ and a proper bite that says ‘Hmm, I’d like to eat you up!’ is, of
course, a big fat waste of time. But after said brother proclaimed I’d got myself
a Marley (for those not in the know a VERY bad dog in a very good book and not
so good movie (ala Jennifer Aniston) called Marley and Me) and had I considered
getting a smaller, less robust dog, I decided it was time to go back to Ruth.

So we enrolled in the Good Dogs of
Australia Course. Pip loved it. There was free time at the start where he got
to play with the other dogs, running joyfully around a huge paddock. And, of
course, the supply of premium gravy beef was on offer.

I must admit I was a little
disappointed that we didn’t address how to deal with problem behaviours –
chewing on the lead, jumping up and nipping being the main issues I hoped to
address.

This is not Pip, actually a dog called Tip, but this is the kind of thing Pip does regularly that I hoped to nip in the bud.

Instead, it was about getting your dog to behave well in public. Come
when called, not chase joggers, interact calmly with passing people and dogs,
etc. Pip was pretty good at all these things. But it was testing point 10 that
was going to be our bug bear.

It went like this:

Mealtime Manners: The dog must sit and wait while a small bowl of food
is placed on the ground in front of
it.It must remain in the sit position
until the signal to eat is given.The dog
should allow the handler to remove the empty bowl without showing any resentment.(Lessons 2 and 14.)

She was kidding right? Wrong. And just to
keep you tuning in Dear Readers – or is that logging on – I will let you know
what happened tomorrow.